Angelo Mangiarotti

Angelo Mangiarotti (1921 – 2012) was an Italian architect, urban planner and designer whose work was founded on the principle of "never forgetting the real needs of users".

Mangiarotti was born in Milan and studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, graduating in 1948. In 1953 he moved to America and took up a post as a visiting lecturer at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Here he came into contact with and modernist luminaries such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Konrad Wachsmann, all of whom were to prove key influences on his future work.

On returning to Italy in 1955, Mangiarotti set up practice as an architect in partnership with Bruno Morassutti. He subsequently founded Mangiarotti & Associates in 1989.

His design work ranges in scale from urban planning and architectural schemes to lighting and furniture produced by notable manufacturers such as Vistosi, Fontana Arte, Danese and Artemide.

Mangiarotti continued to teach intensively throughout his career, holding posts at the University of Hawaii, the University of Adelaide, the Istituto Superiore di Disegno Industriale in Venice, the Universities of Florence and Palermo, and the Politecnica di Milano.